The more the bureaucracy moves to enact the Obama administration's notion of health care "reform", the worse it gets. In this case, it's their move to eliminate the conscience protection rights concerning abortion that were provided for by the Bush administration.

Those protections were put in place on behalf of those in the medical community who did not want to be forced to participate in performing abortions. The 2008 rule by the Bush administration was put in place to prohibit recipients of any federal funding from discriminating against those who had such moral objections.

The Obama administration now wants to reverse that somewhat and force those medical personnel to distribute drugs which are intended to induce abortion.

Several pro-life groups are sending a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius warning her of the alarming effects on patients that will follow the Obama administration’s recent move to strip the medical community of key conscience protections on abortion. ...

This week, the Christian Medical Association, Catholic Medical Association, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists (AAPLOG), and Medical Students for Life are releasing a joint letter to Sebelius and it is calling on medical students and medical professionals to sign onto the letter before it is sent on March 22.

Dominique Monlezun, the National Coordinator for Medical Students for Life, told LifeNews.com that “95% of physicians in a recent national poll agreed that they ‘would rather stop practicing medicine altogether than be forced to violate their conscience.’”

“The decision to take away doctors’ conscience rights has tremendous implications on the patients who need their care. Without conscience protections, many faith-based hospitals that provide services to millions have already said they would shut down rather than provide any abortion-related services,” Monlezun said. “Secretary Sebelius must retract the recent HHS policy change to protect current and future medical professionals, and the patients who require their care and expertise.” ...

Of course the impact of this will be to discourage certain people from entering (or continuing in) the medical profession...which means fewer people with access to quality healthcare...which, when you consider how this administration seems to feel about the private medical sector to begin with - and their desire for government to become the primary supplier - it isn't that big of a surprise.

It also seems a little hypocritical coming from an administration whose Justice Department claims that it needed to do more on civil rights enforcement. Apparently religious conscience rights don't qualify as a civil right as far as they're concerned.

Unless the administration changes its position, the rule change will go into effect within a month.